Local Government

At its Wednesday meeting, Bloomington’s city council approved the city’s $163-million budget for 2026 on a 7–2 tally, with councilmembers Matt Flaherty and Kate Rosenbarger casting the dissenting votes. The total includes planned expenditures from the general fund of about $65.1 million.

At a special meeting held on Wednesday (Oct. 8), the Monroe County council voted 5–2 to reinstate longevity pay for county employees in 2026, reversing a unanimous decision made just one week earlier, which provoked strong objections from several employees of the county government.

Proposed changes to the affordable housing incentives in Bloomington's UDO are currently under discussion. A possible change would allow more lot coverage for owner-occupied units. The draft would also introduce a minimum project size, of 50 units, for use of the payment-in-lieu option.

Two public meetings are now scheduled on the future of the College-Walnut corridor: Tuesday, Oct. 28, and Thursday, Oct. 30. Both October meetings will be held as open houses in the Bloomington city council chambers, starting at 5:30 p.m. They will essentially be “the same meeting twice.”

Last Sunday, as a part of its routine mapping of recent Monroe County property transfer records, The B Square reported the sale of several properties by Indiana University Foundation to the Indiana University Board of Trustees. There’s no insight yet on why the transfers were made.

Vote centers were again a topic of discussion for Monroe County’s election board, when board member Penny Githens on Thursday pushed for the board to reset a process for establishing them. Four months ago when the board voted on vote centers, the measure failed.